- The option to generate immense maps, think Distant Worlds with thousands of stars and tens of thousand of planets, if you wanted to

- The option to have more AI opponents, this kinda goes with the larger galaxies, say 40 opponents and the option for some of these to be vastly different (say some can only live in gas giants and you can exterminate every living thing on such a planet but you cannot colonize it, races that can only inhabit, say, red giants etc, think Kevin Anderson's Saga of the seven suns)

- More freedom to come up with surprising solutions (say thew way you can teleport an entire station through an unstable wormhole in Haegemonia)

- Full tactical battle mode - the option to choose whether you direct the battle yourself or delegate that fully or partially to the AI, say I want to personally attend to the invasion of a star system as the outcome of the battle is be crucial, but I want the AI to take care of search and destroy mission to handle two pirate fighters in an asteroid belt). Say the game can switch between full RTS mode if you choose full tactical battle mode or auto as it is in GC2 now.

- Battle mode in 3d (as in freedom of movement in three directions), think Homeworld-like battles plus terrain bonuses/obstacles (say you can use an steroid belt to your advantage or the gravity well of a planet or the radiation of a star), think Ender's game on steroids

- More sophisticated ship building options

- More complicated tech trees and interdependancy and synergy of the techs in plus more race-centric variations

Well, since it's a wish list, I'd like to start with Carriers or some sort of fighter carrying modules. The fighters can be recoverable up to a point, but when your pilots are all dead, you have to go get some pop off of a planet to replenish them. That, and the materials to rebuild the fighters.

Different races/civilizations. Not just for the canon ones but also for the custom ones that (I hope that) we can create. Super abilities and different tech trees (in addition to their own AIs) was a good step but I'd love more. If this was fantasy, I'd say Master of Magic. As it's sci-fi, I'll say Master of Orion 2. I love to get stuck in the custom civilization screen of that game and all it's posibilities. Galactic Civilizations is to a point more simple than that. And lacks negative options which kind of suck. If I were to create space elves, I could not give them slower population growth than humans. If I want to create some kind of cybernetic or robotic race/civilization, there are no options for them beyond roleplaying (don't worry, being a custom robotic civilization won't get you points with the Yor) and the avatar of their leader (which you cannot see unless you play against that custom civilization). Things like Humans and Altarians competing for the same kind of planets at the beginning is nice. It's even more nice if Humans don't actually compete for the same planets when dealing with civilization X, that happens to live in toxic worlds. I think that bringing even more depth to the civilizations would be awesome.

I want to be able to crew my ships from a pool of officers. These officers would be able to level and with enough experience can become leaders to allow creation of an officer barracks or something. Or you can have all of them on one ship like the enterprise and kick some major booty.

Captain -

Tactical -

Engineer

Security - Haha not sure what combat will look like but if boarding operations became a possiblity

tactical combat similar to "gratuitous Space battles" or the dominion series with real fleets, consisting of different kinds of vessels, fighters and bombers. The ship design mechanic in GalCiv2 was uninteresting, because you only ever built one kind of vessel to combat the enemy.

I think the question isnt so much 'What I would to see', but more, please take the concepts and ideas introduced in 2 and clean\enhance\implement better.

For example

-Tech tree needs needs major overhaul. -Mainly the weapons\armor tech tree are not well thought out. Incremental upgrades that are so weak it makes almost no sense to invest in them, except that you need them to get to the good stuff. Laser I, Laser III? Laser V? they ALL suck.

-I agree with OP. The main strategic map in 2 left a lot a be desired. It was 'good enough', but I think it needs a major rework.

-Enhance the ship designer. Better jewel pieces. Make it easier to do symmetrical builds. The dials need numbering 1-360 (how did they miss that?)

-Spruce up the combat viewer.(I know it doesnt do anything, but hey I like seeing my sleek capital ships flying majestically into battle)

-Planets dont go from zero population to 18 billion in 6 months.....really. Even humans dont breed that fast.

-Multiplayer. Sure an immense map might take years in MP mode, but hey, even with additional CPU checked...the scripting was pretty stupid, esp on large+ maps. Humans however, are very devious and treacherous opponents. Still better 'AI' wouldnt hurt either.

-Better Waypoint\Rally system. Current one sucks.-sorry.

-No more colony rushing with massive AI cheating. Gawd I %#$%$# hate that about 2.

-Planetary conquest.-Needs overhaul. Planets are too easy to conquer for most part, and there zero chance they will rebel, tie down troops, destroy infrastructure etc. Things you think a real conquered planets population might engage in....

-Fix the mod system. Again, not very user friendly even to install.

-Do something with espionage. As things stand, it is not very useful. The main 'draw' for spying now is it prevents random acts forcing you into a war you dont want, arent ready for. Other than that-it doesnt really do a lot. As an example, having a large spy network in an empire can favourably affect the outcome of treaties and negotiations. Make it harder to root out spies than it is now,etc.

-Have mixed feelings about starbases. Very expensive and even fully upgraded Mil-Bases, are really not that hard to destroy. Even a half-hearted attempt will take even the most fortified bases out without much trouble. Fully upgraded and defended Trade bases? Pretty weak-sauce. All those weapons and defences you can buy-dont really give you much protection when it comes down to it. Even allowing Starbases in 3 to automatically upgrade as soon as new tech comes available-with cost deducted from your treasure of course-would be better then shuttling endless constructors all over the map.

I can think of more things. Like i say, its not much about needing 'new' things in 3, but rather fixing and better implementation of things that are in 2, but didnt work, or were poorly implemented and so on.

Trying to re-invent the wheel often makes good games successors worse...a lot worse. Think Moo3, or Simcity 2013. We've all seen it many times. When you have a semi-decent product, it doesn't necessarily need new, but rather fixing things that didnt quite work as well as they could have the first time around.

I made a mod that adds those. You can find it here, if you are interested.

As for the topic, here are some of the things I'd like to see:

- game mechanics working differently for some races. It felt a bit weird that everything worked exactly the same for every race in GalCiv 2. Taxes, influence, morale, pop-growth, etc. For example, the Torians have a very high pop-growth. Due to that, they are probably used to live in crowded spaces. Maybe they even prefer to live that way. So, why is their base approval affected by high population just the same as everybody else?

- unique game mechanics for some races. For example, the Drengin are a race of slavers. They attack and conquer other races to get more slaves. However, you never saw any of that in GalCiv 2. You only hear them talk about it, or read of it in their tech tree. So, why not make part of the Drengin's population actual slaves, and give them the ability to "harvest" more? Instead of providing tax income, slaves could add a small, free bonus to production and research.

- more unique tech trees. The tech trees in TotA were a great step in the right direction. However, they still felt a little too generic at places, because they used a lot of the same techs, or the techs were only slightly different (same tech, just with different name, cost, or bonuses). That isn't a problem in and off itself, but I think it could have gone a little further. For example, the Yor's Cybernetic Support System was just the regular General Life Support with a different name and description. Why not make it work differently, like providing a huge bonus to the Yor's Range ability, but no access to life support modules?

- better implementation of the story and the lore of the races. Again, TotA was a good step in the right direction. I loved reading the descriptions of the techs and planetary improvements, because they provided a lot of information about the races. However, it just wasn't enough. For some of the races, like the Drengin and Altarians, there were a lot of details provided. For others, like the Torians and Krynn, not quite as much, but still a good amount. For some, however, like the Korx, almost nothing. When I was reading in the Datalinks that the Korx are longlived, I was quite surprised, because I didn't knew. Maybe it was mentioned in GalCiv 1 and I just forgot about it, but it never came up in GalCiv 2. Not that it matters anymore. The Korx are gone as a civilisation.

- being able to play against all races. I never liked being limited to only play against 9 major races per game.

I do not want any RTS, that was never part of either GCI or II. I don't like click fests, I would rather just allow the computer to take care of combat. I like to do the colony management, I like creating the ships, choosing what to research. I like the turn based awesomeness that this game represents. RTS should not be part of this game in any form.

Sorry, I am old school in games, I feel like there are soooo many click as fast as you can games out there, this shouldn't be another in that crowded market.

I do not want any RTS, that was never part of either GCI or II. I don't like click fests, I would rather just allow the computer to take care of combat. I like to do the colony management, I like creating the ships, choosing what to research. I like the turn based awesomeness that this game represents. RTS should not be part of this game in any form.

Sorry, I am old school in games, I feel like there are soooo many click as fast as you can games out there, this shouldn't be another in that crowded market.

While I'm with you on not wanting RTS in GC3, this thread is not about that. It's about what you'd like to see in GC3 if it were your perfect 4x game.

You have some good thoughts on what you do want, such as colony management, creating ships and choosing research.

There are no bad ideas in here. Just a list of what people would like to see. I hope this thread doesn't degenerate into yet another argument on what should not be included.

If the first wish came true, I would wish that in each of those cities you can assign every hex what kind of buildings you want to grow in there like a plant or like a landlord wanting other people to make a successful business in that location.

IF the second wish came true I would like buildings to grow from small mini buildings to massive sky scrapers when enough time and land is given to them. maybe a scale from level 1 to level X buildings when technology grows. You can make this growth system revolutionary in a small given space by making buildings take up more then one tile and look significantly higher then any other colony model to date. THIS WOULD BE AMAZING IN 3D VISUALS.

If the third wish came true, then congratulations, add whatever other players wants to these colonies and you got an EPIC system where players would actually care how their cities are doing.

***EDIT***

You totally got to check out a model I have to show you, using sketup I made a visual of what the 3D model would look like if all of the above came true...

It match's the galactic civilizations city in GCII, it would make so much more sense if your industries, research centers, wonders etc. goes in the city, not the city to be a insignificant building in the mix

Best part is, all you got to do is tell the game where you want your buildings and it will grow up like a plant. This is a plant-it after all. (pun intended)

I loved MOO2, that was a good game as well. I remembered one other thing I liked. When you conquered a planet of some other race, it wasn't like you wiped all of them out (although an evil race could) so, as the population grew it often meant you had a planet full of other species in your empire. You could also transplant some of your people to one planet or another. You could get special bonuses for using certain races on some planets etc... I liked that concept. I would also like to see that carried forward. Another thing that I have seen is some religion/belief system that a given race may have. The Krynn have something like that, why not others?

One of my most favorite "decisions" I ever had to make in a video game was in Mass Effect where you choose between saving Kaiden or Ashley. I LOVE this choice because SOMEONE HAS TO LOSE...there is no "perfect" way to play where everyone lives -- one of them MUST die and it is totally unavoidable...AND, it is a choice that you have to live with for two more games...

In the context of strategy games, choices that have deep and long-lasting (or permanent) consequences are what I'm looking for...imagine I'm playing a game as the self-righteous Altarians...I'd love to be hit with a tough choice: do you go on a crusade of righteousness that puts you at permanent war with everyone? or do you take the path of peace and are not allowed to build any combat ships? There's no "middle ground" -- you have to pick a choice that forces you away from the run of the mill "goodie two shoes" play you always did as the Altarians...

These types of choices make each game interesting...they force you to deviate from established patterns of play or "role-playing"...and the best part is that if you don't like them, simply turn random events off...

2) CHOICES GROUNDED IN MORALITY OR IDEOLOGY

GC2 sort of hit this with the good/neutral/evil thing...I would go a step further though and compound that with ideology...my favorite game of all time is Alpha Centauri, and it is still my favorite because of how much it immerses you in ideology and philosophy...

Are you pro-industry or pro-planet? Cooperative or isolationist? Religious or secular? These decisions are great because there is NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER...it is just a choice, and one that has consequences (both good and bad) either way...examples of duality (peace vs. war, science vs. religion, etc) are nice, but even better is when there are 3 or 4 choices....does your society value military power, wealth, or scientific knowledge? Is it a democracy, police state, or fundamentalist regime? The political parties of GC2 were an attempt at this, but I never felt connected to my party, nor did I believe the benefits of any one party were game changing or instrumental in determining how I used the faction...

3) MECHANIC THAT BALANCES VERTICAL VS. HORIZONTAL GROWTH

One thing that REALLY bothers me in strategy games is when it simply comes down to being bigger and badder than everyone else...Civilization IV and V both are great examples of how a game forces the player to choose between a small, focused empire or a large empire with little vertical growth...if you chose to expand rapidly and continually, game mechanics made it harder to manage your empire and your cities more inefficient....this allowed small empires to still compete economically and scientifically...

Unfortunately, GC2 only rewarded you for having more and more planets....limiting how fast you can expand is NOT enough, I want it to be a perfectly viable strategy to grab only a few planets and really focusing on developing them for the rest of the game...

4) UNIQUE PLAYING STYLE FOR EACH FACTION

I LOVE the Vasari Loyalists in Sins of a Solar Empire...in my opinion, they are the epitome of how different factions can have totally different playing styles...the Vasari Loyalists are able to eat planets, something that totally changes how one plays the game...they are truly unique from the other 5 factions because they are in a way playing a totally different game...while everyone else is rushing to grab as many planets as possible and fight conventional wars, the VL are able to go full mobile and completely abandon planets altogether...in essence, it's liking playing checkers while your opponent has chess pieces...

When I play the Krynn, I don't want to be researching techs, I want to be stealing them....when I play the Drath, I don't ever want to have to fight a war, I want to bank solely on proxies...when I play the Drengin, I want my industry to rely on conquering new planets to acquire new slaves (or else completely falter)....when I play the Yor, I want culture to be completely moot....

Some of the cool things I liked in GC2...the Yor didn't really have morale facilities -- rather, the same facilities that gave food also boosted morale...krynn facilities that boosted morale also boosted influence...thalan didn't get more powerful facilities, but rather facilities that simply became more cost-effective....the yor didn't have markets, but instead boosted their economy through research....those were cool differences, but I'd like things that are radically different...

If the game had characters, I would love the ability to give them ranks/titles.

For instance, if the government was an empire, I could give the planetary governor a title such as a Duke. Maybe even make him lord over a few planets, which would give lots of benefits, but who knows, maybe that duke would eventually rebel and setup his on empire.

For a republic, it could be senators, or chancellor's. I am sure there are lots of titles which could give stat boosts and effect loyalty.

I am just thinking back to Medieval: Total War, Dune, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Emperor of the Fading Suns.

I want to be able to crew my ships from a pool of officers. These officers would be able to level and with enough experience can become leaders to allow creation of an officer barracks or something. Or you can have all of them on one ship like the enterprise and kick some major booty.

Captain -

Tactical -

Engineer

Security - Haha not sure what combat will look like but if boarding operations became a possiblity

Medical

I'm pretty sure this is a ton of bloat but I think it would be cool

You forgot "Red shirt"

I was thinking something similar, but restricted to ships and fleets. In GC2 every ship gains experience, but maybe you can invest in tech/buildings that grants experience to ships or fleets, so you don't start a war with just rookies, given the right investment (idea taken from Space Empires)

And to make a particular ship/fleet distinctive, maybe give them a name after reaching a certain level of experience (A Little like XCOM, when you promote a soldier to sargeant) So a particular ship will have a class like BattleAxe, and a name like "Protector"

Additional idea: maybe you can define a naming convention per race like "NCC-nnnnn [name]", so your Constitution Class ship, designated NCC-1701 can be named "Protector"

I wouldn't mind having some 'leader' types, they could be military types, captain, engineer, weapons that are on your ships or they could be civilian types that help manage your planets like, financial adviser, colony management etc...

One thing that REALLY bothers me in strategy games is when it simply comes down to being bigger and badder than everyone else...Civilization IV and V both are great examples of how a game forces the player to choose between a small, focused empire or a large empire with little vertical growth...if you chose to expand rapidly and continually, game mechanics made it harder to manage your empire and your cities more inefficient....this allowed small empires to still compete economically and scientifically...

Forcing the players to limit the size of the empire lets the Ai use a more manageable way of play. To my opinion this prevents u from being to strong. At least this makes for a more balanced game between u and all the Ai's, and between computer players.

ote who="Seleuceia" reply="17" id="3412205"]0

Unfortunately, GC2 only rewarded you for having more and more planets....limiting how fast you can expand is NOT enough, I want it to be a perfectly viable strategy to grab only a few planets and really focusing on developing them for the rest of the game...

I LOVE the Vasari Loyalists in Sins of a Solar Empire...in my opinion, they are the epitome of how different factions can have totally different playing styles...the Vasari Loyalists are able to eat planets, something that totally changes how one plays the game...they are truly unique from the other 5 factions because they are in a way playing a totally different game...while everyone else is rushing to grab as many planets as possible and fight conventional wars, the VL are able to go full mobile and completely abandon planets altogether...in essence, it's liking playing checkers while your opponent has chess pieces...

I want to be able to crew my ships from a pool of officers. These officers would be able to level and with enough experience can become leaders to allow creation of an officer barracks or something. Or you can have all of them on one ship like the enterprise and kick some major booty.

Captain -

Tactical -

Engineer

Security - Haha not sure what combat will look like but if boarding operations became a possiblity

Medical

I'm pretty sure this is a ton of bloat but I think it would be cool

Star trek is like a weird role playing game not a stradegy game. I didn't find any aspects of a stradegy game in startrek. Some games have more than one game. Maybe as a seperate game U could have this option. If u found a way to turn Star trek into a stradegy game. This is where u can post your idea. Maybe instead of specific officers u could decide on general officers.But maybe U could decide what kind of generals and admirals U get. I'm still in the idea of leader interactions like in medieval total war.

- The option to generate immense maps, think Distant Worlds with thousands of stars and tens of thousand of planets, if you wanted to

- The option to have more AI opponents, this kinda goes with the larger galaxies, say 40 opponents and the option for some of these to be vastly different (say some can only live in gas giants and you can exterminate every living thing on such a planet but you cannot colonize it, races that can only inhabit, say, red giants etc, think Kevin Anderson's Saga of the seven suns)

- More freedom to come up with surprising solutions (say thew way you can teleport an entire station through an unstable wormhole in Haegemonia)

- Full tactical battle mode - the option to choose whether you direct the battle yourself or delegate that fully or partially to the AI, say I want to personally attend to the invasion of a star system as the outcome of the battle is be crucial, but I want the AI to take care of search and destroy mission to handle two pirate fighters in an asteroid belt). Say the game can switch between full RTS mode if you choose full tactical battle mode or auto as it is in GC2 now.

- Battle mode in 3d (as in freedom of movement in three directions), think Homeworld-like battles plus terrain bonuses/obstacles (say you can use an steroid belt to your advantage or the gravity well of a planet or the radiation of a star), think Ender's game on steroids

- More sophisticated ship building options

- More complicated tech trees and interdependancy and synergy of the techs in plus more race-centric variations

- More control over planetary invasions if you choose to

All this stuff is going to be in the game lol and if its not then its because it will not balance the gameplay. Battle mode in 3d could be in there in some way but i wouldn't count it in if its going to behave like a completely different game.

I think the species need to be more fair. I don't like to play a species and feel that I'm handicapped because of the species I play. I'm not saying I want them the same on the other hand I don't mind playing different species different ways as long as the Ai can also play them too. They can be made where u have to play them differently, but when you play the strategy that is for the species it should be on par with the exact same strategy of other species that way you don't feel cheated especially if they are more flexible. What I'm saying is the species should be about as good with each other. I even like the idea that each and every species should require you to play a different strategy from the others. I think this strategy should make the race as good as the way the other species play their own strategies. You could reward players for playing the species the way they are su[[psed to. You could give them an influence or morale bonus to players who play the species the way your supposed to.

Freeciv had 83 civs; I would like to have 83 or more species on Galactic civilizations. Freeciv had 4 or more leaders per civ; I want to see Galactic civilizations let you have a choice of different leader with different abilities that affect the entire civilization for each civilization. I also want the leaders to be like Medieval total war where they r super interactive with each other.

Civilization 4 have something like great people. There are different kinds of great people.

I would like to use civics instead of governments. Civics are dependent on what you research. I think that other species has different kinds of governments, and if u have a different government, ethics, political parties, or religious perspectives this would cause different civic options. What I'm saying is that the game would have different civic options for the different species based on their alignment and goals. I also would like to point out that some of the human governments were also political parties, but this may not be so for other species. We could also include this for state religions which could work on both the local, state, and federal level. This system could be interchangeable depending on the species. A different religion setup would also affect the species. I think each civilization would have different government and civics options you would choose from. I would like the abilities of the political parties actually have the abilities fit the party. Governments and economies are different I'm just not sure how. All this and more affects civics.

I would like to see a 65 player or more game like Freeciv or a scenario like a space version of Teteckministan on civilization 3. U would have to have a bigger map.

I would like to see 1200 solar systems. I also would like to be able to max out the map based on how much memory and virtual memory I have. By including virtual memory I can expand this by experimenting with the size of my virtual memory. I would like the option to check for this in my options menu, so I don't have to reinstall the game every time I change my virtual memory. This can be utilized by checking your system setting in windows your virtual memory in windows, and your graphics control program in windows. This would also help the game become better with better technology.

I would like to see better starbases. I would like to see an option to have an economic boost to my planets in a certain sector by my economic starbases.

I would like to see a better a pirate option. Maybe like Sins of a solar empire or Distant worlds.

I would like to see a black market option, but to be honest a black market would probably sell different goods than what is legal and is not at the local market. These goods would be illegal. Whats illegal is different depending on the species.

I would like to see a better leveling up option like Sins of a solar empire. When your ships level up you actually pick abilities. Like the antimatter abilities in sins of a solar empire.

I would like to see the difficulty option to work differently instead of increasing or decreasing the Ai's economy as you go up or down in level of difficulty; you could have a better playing Ai. I would like to see the computer Ai on a regular basis have a 100 in economics. military, and research, or what is the significance of recommending this if u don't follow this. I think this number would change depending on your ability bonuses and penalties. On Advanced algorithims on the hardest level the Ai would work a little differently. When the Ai couldn't beat u it would start changing things around till it found a stradegy that could play against you, or it would adopt your stradegy as best as it could. That would mean that the Ai would have to save how it played from the previous games remembering what did and didn't work against you. The game already classifies techs why not classify other aspects that control the ai this way the ai would have a list of stuff it can play against you remembering what doesn't work against you while trying something new it didn't do next time you play a game. The player needs to have a option to reset the ai to default for when he gets tired of this. This is for the hardest level. This could be one single Ai, or it would be based on the Ai as it would be in contact with you. Either through diplomacy or combat. By diplomacy and espionage it could learn what are the buildings you build and the ships you make. Through combat it would learn how to counter your ships. I would like to see the Ai's actually take their share of the map. They usually either don't colinize enough planets, or they try to take over the map when they should be only taking their share of the map. Every species should only take their share of the map. Like the Thalans one species takes up way to much of the map. And a few species don't expand much at all like the Yor, Drengin, or the Korath clan. I would like to see all the Ai's build morale improvements. I wouldn't want to see the Ai not go crazy with farms to the point that it brings down the morale to less than 51% unless it can keep a reasonably descent approval. This means if the planets approval falls below 51% then stop builfing farms. U may have to upgrade a farm to something else to balance this out. The Ai should care about morale. The Ai needs to build the right buildings on the bonus tiles. The Ai may need to drop warships by its starbases until it can upgrade the starbases where it can defend itself. There should b no Ai's that don't build structures. The Ai needs to be able to use its super ability. The Ai needs to b able to watch it's production, approval, and taxes where it can reasonably grow. The appproval being the most important factor until the civilization gets big enough. Because the approval controls how big your population is going to be. It needs to be able to build infrastructure for later in the game. The upgrades and improvement capability of the Ai can b improved depending on how many empty tiles r on the planet before u terraform. If it has an empty tile there instead of terraforming a tile that u don't need to be terraformed until later; build on the empty tiles until their is no empty spaces left on the planet; then u can terraform another tile. Now as far as upgrading, or building new units this should depend on if your income is more than your spending. If u can't afford to build a new improvements, or upgrade an existing improvement don't build a new building, or upgrade the building to a better structure until u can afford to. This may require u to build more economic buildings if u have them. Also if U have a better building that does the same thing only better then upgrade it this is in reference to one per planet improvement when the Ai may get a better unit later.. The Ai needs to stop letting their population on their planets grow more than 20 billion. I would like for an increased difficulty not being an arbitrary economic bonus, but Instead the Ai does it's economics better through a better infastructure management. The Ai needs to stop trading away planets. If u want u could make all these ideas for advanced algorithms only.

I would like to see an editor similar to civilization 3. I heard that Starcraft 2 has a better one. I don't know i never played Starcraft, but if they do I would prefer that one. An editor similar to the same capability as modding the game. This by no means replaces modding.

I would like the species of my own I create to b customizable with the same capability as stock species. I would like to be able to set me up with the same abilities as the stock species. For instance the Krynn can get up to 80% morale with populists. This way I can play around with the different ways I can customize without feeling I'm being cheated when I customize. would like to have the ability to modify how my leader looks like they do on boxing legends of the ring or greatest heavyweights on Sega genesis.. I would like to be able to pick the clothing of my leader. With the Krynn I would like my leaders to change to represent the different species of the Krynn. I would like to see negative options where I can get more points by penalising other abilities. I thought that the minor species tech tree was a good idea for when I was customizing. It at least gave me another option for another tech tree. I would like to see even more tech trees when I customise my species. I would like to make a tech tree for my customized species by picking from a list of tech tree paths, There would have to be a limited number of paths out of the available paths allowed. I would like to see extra super abilities. When I pick starting techs for my customized species under a specific tech tree I think I should at least be able to pick the same techs as the stock species that the tree was made for instead of getting jipped for customizing. I'm not saying to take away my abilities to pick techs, but a lot of times u will make me pick a tech that the stock species did not have to pick to get the tech they have. Making it impossible to have the tech setup as the stock species. I guess the Thalans r from the future so they don't count. I would like to see a creature creater like the one on the tribal stage on spore, or when u start the game at a later stage on spore. A difference would be that u can make humans. Another difference is that it would be easier to make aliens. Another difference is that u include the options to make your aliens. I want to pick my clothing. Add more alien picts. Have a tech option where u pick the tech trees for your race from a list of tech trees, or maybe the game can pick the different trees from a list of aspects of your race u give it.

This would be a really good tech idea. Multiple paths to the same techs. Divying up points amongst the techs u research this is done in the game. 0Different leaders would have different tech trees. If U have a research treaty with a different species. U would share research paths u wouldn't have otherwise, and u could ask the other one to research certain techs on your tech tree u wouldn't be able to do otherwise without a research treaty. U could ask a species to research a tech u would ask for would either come from your own tech tree, or it would be the next tech to be researched on the other species tech tree. If a species is hostile towards another species with advanced espionage then it should be able to make units to counter the other species that it couldn't do before only when the other species have researched certain techs.This would require the species doing this to have advanced espionage of the species he is trying to counter. If there is more than one species he is hostile towards. He would use the best unit first. If the most advanced doesn't have supereor espionage on him then it would be the next most advanced u were hostile towards. This would work on a unit basis not necessarily the most advanced. At the beginning of the game u would have a selection of specialized starting techs. U would be able to select half of the available starting techs. U would have specialized tech trees connected to the starting techs u pick, so when u selected them U would have a different tech tree depending of your selection of starting techs. On top of this different species should have different tech trees. You should be able to ask a species to research a tech I think this would be based on your tech tree, the next tech that the one being asked is working next, or maybe u 2 could work on the same tech this would be based on either tech tree. This would require u to have a research agreement with the other species. This way the tech would be researched faster by combining your tech points. Here's the catch u cannot suggest techs unless they r on your tech tree, or u ran across them through espionage. Your race is limited by how it thinks. If u to have a research treaty with each other. The Ai can do this to u under the same conditions.

Now when I talk about the editor I'm talking about what came with the game that lets me make my own scenarios. I'm not talking about the modding capability of the game. The modding capability of the game involves a text editor that rewrites many Html and text files; where as to the editor it is a menu system that lets u change how the game works which is similar but different. I still want to keep the modding capability of the game, but the game already comes with an editor I want to make it better. What I would like to do with the editor. I want to change how big the map is. I want to b able to add species. I want to add tech trees. I would like to have an option to have different opponents than the ones u can pick to play on the game. I want the ability to add players to the game. If I don't want the only the stock races to choose from, but I want to be able to add as many customized races as I want. I want to be able to add things that r not on the game. I want to be able to randomize only the things I want to randomize; while, I choose the other stuff. I want to control as much of the anomolies, random events, small races, opponents, and players as possible; even, how the Ai does these things. I want to be able to balance out the choices without modifying each and every one, or I would like to be able to modify the choices of each and every one. I noticed there were abilities that the player had no control over. These weren't even options under how u choose what the new techs do under the editor. I want to control as many aspects as possible for units and techs, and I want the Ai to use them. In the editor it was a little disappointing when I pulled up a tech tree, and it didn't give me an option to add techs from other trees. I want to be able to add new ships to the game. I want to be able to add new hulls to the game. Maybe to be able to add new options at the beginning of the game. Be able to add new ship options when building your ship. I want to be able to change the win conditions of the game, and I want to be able to control every aspect of the Ai. I would like to be able to change the way how the Ai feel about u wihtout changing the fact that they haven't met U with other races than just the Dread lords. I waant to be able to use my customize race option to replace stock races. This could still be a scenario like the game suggests, but instead of making me shift things around to find the file, and put it in the right folder. Can the editor just do that for me. I want to be able to create super abilities. The only limitation to the editor I want is my machine. Again an editor is not the modding capability of the game.

We should call them species not races. If u think about it an alien from another planet would not be in the same kingdom or may have a different genetic structure. They may not even have the same nucleuc acids or the same amino acids what this means is that the sugars and the proteins r reversed. They may be using a different solvent than water to hold things together. Even less likely they may be made up of carbon, silicon or germanium compounds. The astrobiologists r not sure between divergent and convergent evolution, or how panspermia may carry different things like animals, plants, bacteria, protozoa, archea, or organic compounds. All this means is that the Drengin would be none thing like the blacks or the Chineese. They wouldn't even be as similar as the Neanderthal, Homo antessor, or the Austrolithecenes to the Homo sapien sapiens. The only exception to this rule is the Altarians who r somehow the same species as human.

I would like to see better garphics, and a universe with the different space stuff we find that r there.

I would like to see more example mods, and a easier site search and download mods.

I would like to see the different species of the Krynn, and the different sentient species on Altaria.

The galactic council is something I like about the game. I would like to see an option to see the species with the most Ip get to pick the option on what to vote on. We r not likely to have 2 with exactly the highest Ip, but if this happens the we would have to vote on who picks on what to vote on. If this also becomes a tie then u would pick random on who picks on what to vote on.

I don't like how the mega events favor evil options. I would eith like to see it taking turns or randomly favoring a certain alignment. Or U could apply different bonuses depending on the choices. Either way different choices have different abilities.

My ideas on what makes a great game has been exhausted these are the biggest ones I came up with.

I think the question isnt so much 'What I would to see', but more, please take the concepts and ideas introduced in 2 and clean\enhance\implement better.

For example

-Tech tree needs needs major overhaul. -Mainly the weapons\armor tech tree are not well thought out. Incremental upgrades that are so weak it makes almost no sense to invest in them, except that you need them to get to the good stuff. Laser I, Laser III? Laser V? they ALL suck. << This will be address in Gal Civ III, I am sure Brad has had over 10 years to come up with a better idea than Mk I, Mk II..ect.

-I agree with OP. The main strategic map in 2 left a lot a be desired. It was 'good enough', but I think it needs a major rework.

-Enhance the ship designer. Better jewel pieces. Make it easier to do symmetrical builds. The dials need numbering 1-360 (how did they miss that?)

-Spruce up the combat viewer.(I know it doesnt do anything, but hey I like seeing my sleek capital ships flying majestically into battle)

-Planets dont go from zero population to 18 billion in 6 months.....really. Even humans dont breed that fast.

-Galciv2 performance on immense maps was frankly, pathetic. An exercise in waiting...and waiting..and crashing. << again going from 32 bit to 64 and making a game use full advantage of threads will help a great deal. Frankly I am looking for a game to tax my machine. I want ridiculously LARGE maps please!

-Multiplayer. Sure an immense map might take years in MP mode, but hey, even with additional CPU checked...the scripting was pretty stupid, esp on large+ maps. Humans however, are very devious and treacherous opponents. Still better 'AI' wouldnt hurt either. << Meh, make the single player rock first than work on MP.

-Better Waypoint\Rally system. Current one sucks.-sorry. <<< agree!

-No more colony rushing with massive AI cheating. Gawd I %#$%$# hate that about 2. << This falls under AI programming something Brad is taking a personal stake in. I am confident that we will see better AI without the cheese of having to give handicaps to make it a challenging game.

-Planetary conquest.-Needs overhaul. Planets are too easy to conquer for most part, and there zero chance they will rebel, tie down troops, destroy infrastructure etc. Things you think a real conquered planets population might engage in.... <<< I liked the original but another option is one similar to the one used by Distant Worlds 'Shadow's where we have a viewer so such. I really don't want a mini tactical game inside my large scale strategic one.

-Fix the mod system. Again, not very user friendly even to install. <<< Agree

-Do something with espionage. As things stand, it is not very useful. The main 'draw' for spying now is it prevents random acts forcing you into a war you dont want, arent ready for. Other than that-it doesnt really do a lot. As an example, having a large spy network in an empire can favourably affect the outcome of treaties and negotiations. Make it harder to root out spies than it is now,etc. << This is good, also stealing again from DW shawdows they have the character part of the game where we can assign spies to missions and away they go. You wait some time and they either succeed of fail and upon success they grow and gain traits to increase or decrease the effectiveness off them. Its always good to have a new admiral acquire the trait 'Drunk'...(sigh)

-Have mixed feelings about starbases. Very expensive and even fully upgraded Mil-Bases, are really not that hard to destroy. Even a half-hearted attempt will take even the most fortified bases out without much trouble. Fully upgraded and defended Trade bases? Pretty weak-sauce. All those weapons and defences you can buy-dont really give you much protection when it comes down to it. Even allowing Starbases in 3 to automatically upgrade as soon as new tech comes available-with cost deducted from your treasure of course-would be better then shuttling endless constructors all over the map. << I didnt mind the old system but I would like to see them more required to move into other areas of the game, diplomacy or logistics.

I can think of more things. Like i say, its not much about needing 'new' things in 3, but rather fixing and better implementation of things that are in 2, but didnt work, or were poorly implemented and so on.

Trying to re-invent the wheel often makes good games successors worse...a lot worse. Think Moo3, or Simcity 2013. We've all seen it many times. When you have a semi-decent product, it doesn't necessarily need new, but rather fixing things that didnt quite work as well as they could have the first time around.